Ponies of the Spark Republic (redone)
by ChocolateMocha0
Summary: Revised version of the original fic. Ten years have passed since the malevolent unicorn mare turned Equestria into the Spark Republic, everypony either brainwashed or too afraid to try and stop her. But a team known as the Resistance, led by a fearless Pegasus named Brevity Thrash, aren't so afraid and will stop at nothing to end Spark's reign once and for all. On hiatus.
1. Prologue

**Hey, guys! It's me again, ChocolateMocha0! I finally got around to starting on the revised version of Ponies of the Spark Republic. I deleted the original to make a new one because I felt there were a lot of flaws in the old one: the pacing seemed bad, there was little to no backstory on how this all happened and all, there were a lot of typos and grammatical errors (from what I saw), etc. etc.**

**So, yeah, this is the prologue here (it's short, but it's just to give a little bit of backstory to Queen Twilight and the Spark Republic and a little introduction). I'm about halfway through writing the next chapter (I'm on my mother's computer, BTW, so I dunno if I'll be able to update the fic regularly or not).**

**I'll probably upload chapter one later today or tomorrow, I'm not totally sure yet. Anyways, I'm done for now, read on and tell me whatcha think of this (even though it's painfully brief). Please enjoy!**

**BTW, OCs are NOT being accepted at this time, (I wrote down the other OCs that were submitted to me beforehand, and like I said before, there's a lot, so I don't want anymore being submitted until I have those taken care of). I'll inform you all when they'll be submitted in one of the future chapters, but for now, no OCs are being accepted at this time.**

* * *

Insane, malevolent, dominant…

Those are three words to accurately describe the Queen.

Twenty years ago, the magical land of Equestria dwelled in harmony under the rule of the royal pony sisters, Princesses Celestia and Luna. Six young ponies helped to maintain harmony throughout the land as well, by harnessing the most powerful magic known to ponykind when need be: the Elements of Harmony.

Ten years ago, that all changed forever…

In the midst of one fateful night, the Changelings, a horde of insect-like creatures that masquerade as ponies and feed on love, struck Canterlot. It was so sudden, and nopony saw it coming. And for the first time in over 1000 years, the Princesses lost.

Twilight Sparkle, Celestia's faithful student and the representation of the Element of Magic, got there at the last second, but by then, it was too late.

With Celestia dead and Luna incapacitated within a Changeling chrysalis, all hope was lost. That is, until Twilight murdered the Changeling Queen in a fit of pure cold-blooded rage.

She was never the same again afterwards.

She began acting uncharacteristically aggressive, abruptly snapping and lashing out at her friends and family without warning to the point even they grew to fear her, fear what may await their fallen land and the young unicorn they use to call their friend.

She soon fell into a deep depression that not even they could bring her out of. She blamed herself for allowing the Princesses to die, that if she'd just been a little bit faster, they might not be in this mess. She believed she failed Princess Celestia, failed her friends and family, failed Equestria, failed herself.

Thus, the caring unicorn everypony once knew and loved died, with only the cold hearted monster known as the Queen left in her place.

But with every evil in the world, there's also the good. The good whose only purpose here is to make sure the Queen and her Republic fall to their knees and the land is returned to harmony as it once was, no matter what the cost…


	2. Chapter 1

**Edit: Added a new section to this fic to make it longer (like I said I would), the parts I added on start from the divider onward if you don't wanna have to read the prologue of this chapter again.**

The Sun hung low and dimly in the sky, many wispy grey clouds hanging in the sky around it, the sky itself tinted a vivid scarlet as if it, too, had been tainted by the blood spilled everyday in the once magical land. Outside, in front of an old dead tree, an old dilapidated treehouse perched within its weakening branches, sat a young pale greyish lavender unicorn mare. Her once beautiful blonde mane was long and flowing, but clotted with dirt and dried blood, kinks and strands of hair decorating it messily.

One lavender hoof was wrapped in a greyish cream bandage, one end of it hanging off loosely and freely, the bandage itself dirty as well and stained with dried blood in places, hiding a probably long healed, but grotesque injury beneath its wrapping. Her coat was slightly unkempt as well, dirty and covered with pink-grey scars of long healed injuries, the most notable one a thick pink scar that wrapped around the side of her neck almost like a necklace.

She didn't seem to mind her appearance though, staring off into the distance with glassy, muted gold eyes that seemed to harness a sad look behind her emotionless gaze.

She was looking out at the sunset, something that usually lasted for a couple of hours without a Princess's magical power aiding it in its dissapearance below the horizon. Even then, it was the same beautiful sight that she'd shared alongside her mother years ago when she was a little filly.

She missed those times, back when they would stand just outside their rather small home and watch the red glow of the Sun melt into oranges, which melted into purples, then dark blues, which would soon give way into the blackness of the night. Back when you didn't have to fear some kind of crazy mare or stallion hidden behind armour depicting a starry emblem on the chest, their purpose being nothing more than to kill her, and then move onto her companions.

"Dinky, it's getting late. It's time to head to bed."

She recognized that voice, it was that of her companion and one of her friends, Scootaloo, the battle-scarred orange Pegasus standing in front of the old treehouse on the small balcony that surrounded it.

Dinky waited for a moment, as if having not heard the other mare's request.

"Dinky, didn't you hear me? Let's _go!"_

Scootaloo was easy to annoy, and she liked that, often using this to her own advantage. But now, she didn't. She knew good and well herself that in a matter of hours, the Sun would be gone, shrouding the area in complete darkness and allowing any Killers or Spark royal guards to ambush them in the night.

Finally, opening her mouth in a long yawn, she rose to her hooves and started up the ramps with a slight limp in her step, the orange mare watching her with a rather annoyed expression as she trotted past her and into the treehouse.

The treehouse, the former clubhouse of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, having become old and worn as the years passed, looked equally as dark within it, appearing to have nothing special in store for them within in it other than a few dusty framed pictures sitting on a nearby shelf or a tattered checklist hanging on the wall.

But Dinky finally backed away against the dry-rotted wooden wall and lit up her horn with a light gold aura. It shimmered for a few moments, and with a slight flash, began rippling before projecting a brilliant gold light across the floor, revealing a passageway in the center of the floor. It looked like a rather wide metal tunnel with a steel ladder on the side leading down.

"Thank you." Scootaloo spoke up with an annoyed edge to her voice as she trotted to the edge of the tunnel. She lifted a hoof to start down it, but turned to Dinky realizing she wasn't following. "Are you coming?"

"Uh, I'll-I'll be down in a sec, okay? Tell the others that if they ask."

"But Dinky, it'll get dangerous if you wait too long, you can't stay in the visible range like this for too long."

"If anypony from the Republic shows up, I'll just cast that shield spell around the place, no problem. And who'll think this old thing's hiding a huge base underground beneath it anyway?"

Scootaloo rolled her eyes in annoyance and replied sternly, "A shield spell's too dangerous to use, Dinky. Any strikes against it in attempt to breach it will just come back on you, eventually forcing you to take it down. And if they see a member of the Resistance standing here looking out, they'll automatically suspect something's up."

"Just go, Scoots, I'll be fine. I'll meet you down there, everything'll be just fine, I'll make sure of it." The Pegasus glared at her silently, a look of disbelief clear in her greyish lavewnder eyes. With an annoyed sigh, Dinky said again, "I promise nothing will happen."

Again, Scootaloo didn't divert her purple eyes from the unicorn mare, almost disturbing her, before the mare finally started down the chute and dissapearing into it. With another barely audible sigh, Dinky trotted to one of the windows that looked out towards the apple orchard, known as Sweet Apple Acres, or formerly known as Sweet Apple Acres.

The barn was old and dilapidated as well, the formerly vivid scarlet paint gone, leaving an ugly grey wooden surface beneath it. The roof was the same way, a very dark, muted beige as well and fallen in in many places, revealing the beams beneath it and the darkness that now occupied the old place.

It was surrounded by hundreds, maybe even thousands of apple trees, now all dead and empty of any leaves. On the ground, you could see greyish, badly wrinkled apples, having been sucked dry of hundreds of vampire fruit bat infestations that had plagued the place many times before.

"One day, she'll return." Dinky mumbled under her breath, pulling the shudders on that side closed and leaping over the tunnel to look out the opposite window. There was hardly anything left of the Sun, but just enough light still glowing from it to silhouette the abandoned ruins of Ponyville below and the mountain built city of Canterlot in the distance.

"I just know it."

She pulled those shudders closed as well and grabbed a rope in her mouth hanging close to the doorway, "Well, i guess Scootaloo and I'll just have to run things until then." With a quick tug of the rope, upper ramp was pulled up and covered the doorway, the lower ramp falling out beneath it, shrouding the inside of the clubhouse into complete blackness.

With a solemn sigh, she started down the tunnel, and with a brief flash of her horn, the tunnel's opening vanished, replacing the view of a slowly swirling bright yellow vortex above her.

* * *

The pale lavender mare lied in her bed within the room. It was small and nothing special; nothing within it but a few old shelves, a framed picture of two perched on top of them, against the rusted steel walls, an analog clock with a hairline crack in it hanging above the door. The door itself looked almost like that of an old elevator with a small, forest green electronic pad on the wall beside it.

It was a DNA scanner that only read that of the ponies within their underground base, any outsiders who attempted to scan their own hoofprints would be denied access and the scanner would lock up for the next hour.

The bed itself was nothing more than an aging mattress and a rather dirty, scratchy blanket to keep herself at least kind of warm in the night, but it lacked a pillow for her, or anypony for that matter, to rest their head on.

But she didn't seemed at all disturbed by the rather poor living conditions within their hide-out, she was in a surprisingly deep slumber, a slight smile etched onto her face. She was dreaming; dreaming about times before the Spark Republic came to power. Sometimes, she'd awaken, hoping to see her room again, getting up shortly afterwards to run downstairs and get some breakfast before school.

Dinky was a rather nostalgic young mare, probably the most out of anypony there. She always wished for things to go back to normal, no matter what the cost. She'd even threatened to flee their hide-out to face and kill the Queen on her own.

Anything to return peace and harmony to the land again.

After a short while, she wriggled slightly in her sleep before blinking open her brilliant gold eyes, the colorful scenes around her abruptly morphing into dull grey ones.

She didn't really want to get up, to face the horrors that were the magical land of Equestria outside the steel doors. _Yeah, real magical. _she thought to herself, plenty of sarcasm accompanying it.

She kicked off the blanket and rose to her hooves, stretching briefly before trotting to face a dusty, cracked mirror. Her mane was a mess, as was the rest of her appearance, but she chose not to mind it, not right now anyway. She had more important things to worry about, they all did.

She brushed it back briefly with a hoof to make it look at least semidecent in front of the others before trotting out, resting the bottom of her hoof on the surface of the DNA scanner.

After a few seconds, it flashed a vivid green and an electronic female voice responded, _Access confirmed. _The door slid open with an audible, low hum and allowed the young unicorn to step out.

The hallways were mostly empty other than a pony or two trotting throughout the place from time to time, usually casting emotionless glances at her as they went, as if they feared she were a danger to them. She raised an eyebrow in confusion, but didn't comment on, it was probably just standard procedure.

Eventually, she began to trot down the corridor, looking around as if she'd never been there before. It was strangely quiet; she didn't even see Scootaloo leaping in to tell her about something like she almost always did.

"Hey, Dinky!" a voice abruptly called out to her.

"Speak of the devil." the unicorn muttered barely audibly to herself.

The orange mare opened her mouth to retort, but only shrugged it off and continued what she was saying, "Dinky, I-I think you should head down to the infirmary."

"Uh, why?"

Scoots paused for a second, looking away briefly, before replying, "It-It's Ruby Pinch, they-they don't think she's going to last much longer after what the Spark guards did to her, so, if you're planning on saying goodbye, you-you'd better do it now while you still have the chance."

And without another word, she trotted past Dinky in the opposite direction, not looking back, leaving the unicorn to momentarily think about what she'd been told.

Ruby Pinch, normally called Pinchy as a nickname by her friends, was another young unicorn mare, a year younger than Dinky, but they'd been best friends since grade school. Less than a week back, a number of Spark guards, all of them muscular stallions, ambushed the place that afternoon.

It didn't take long to make them flee, but Brevity Thrash, the Resistance's leader, decided to send out a few ponies to patrol the area in the night; she sent Pinchy, Tootsie Flute, Scootaloo, and Pina Colada out to patrol the surrounding area and return as soon as they could before night fell.

But while they were out, three of the Spark guards appeared to them again, almost instantly beginning to mercilessly attack them.

As there were only three guards, they felt they could fight them off alone instead of fleeing, but it didn't quite work out that way. By the time the guards fled, Scootaloo and Tootsie Flute came out with minor injuries, while Pina Colada, Pinchy's sister, ended up dead and Pinchy was critically injured, unconscious when they brought her in.

The ruby red unicorn was a mess, Dinky could tell, but never managed to make herself accept the fact that her best friend may end up dead in the end.

Suddenly, Dinky snapped out of her trance, realizing she'd just been standing there with a blank expression for the past three minutes, a few tears beginning to brim her eyes which she quickly blinked away.

She looked away for a few moments, before galloping down the corridors towards the infirmary.

Once she neared it, she slowed to a stop, the door sliding open the moment she arrived in front of it, the bright lights spilling out into the originally dim corridor and temporarily blinding her.

Once her eyes adjusted to the light, she trotted in. The chrome tile floors were still shiny and clear of any dust or dirt, the white walls strangely sterile for the time they lived in as well. The air was heavy of the scent of sanitizer, nearly making her choke.

It wasn't big, but worked well enough. There were only about six rooms in the whole thing, two hospital beds in each seperated by a curtain or two. She'd only visited Ruby here once since she was injured, but still knew good and well where the room was, on the opposite side of the infirmary.

As she passed by the other rooms, she almost constantly heard ponies groaning in pain, coughing, as if they were sick, or just the nurses and doctors there speaking to them or to each other.

Upon reaching the opposite side, the sound of beeping and humming instantly filled her eyes and the dim room caught her sight. Within it lied the injured pony, wrapped in many bandages, most of them blood stained, and hooked up to many different machines, the most notable one, and the only one she really recognized, was an EKG, beeping slowly with the rhythym of the mare's weak pulse.

As she approached her, she realized just how awful the younger mare looked. A thick layer of bandages, vivid with dried blood, covered her left eye and her horn was nothing more than a bruised, cut up stump on her forehead.

The only sign of her still being alive was the rhythymic beeps of the EKG and the rise and fall of her chest with each struggled breath.

Dinky approached the bedside, looking down on her friend tearfully, feeling both grief for the coming demise of her friend and fury for what the guards did to her, what they were capable of doing to any of them if they had the chance.

Finally, she blinked away the half-formed tears and shakily began to speak words that the young mare would never hear, "Oh...oh, Pinchy, how-how could they do this to you? How...H-How could they do this to anypony? I just...I don't understand, I-I'll never understand..."

Then she went silent, looking away as she allowed a few stray tears to cascade down her face and onto the tile floor at her hooves. She looked up again, unable to face the unicorn, and opened her mouth to speak again, only to be cut off as a hoof grabbed her own. It was rather strong grip that startled her out of her trance.

Looking down, she noticed the hoof was a greyish purple-red, the unicorn's lime green eye staring up at her wearily. "D-Dinky..." she managed to choke out. Her entire body was trembling and her eye was glassy and sightless, but still made eye contact with the lavender mare, "Dinky...d-don't worry about me. You-You have lots of survivors out there that you st-still need to...protect."

She should've expected something like that from the mare; Pinchy had always been very selfless, even as a filly. She hardly ever concerned her own well-being, only that of others, something that Dinky never really managed to understand.

Suddenly, Pinchy's eyes fell closed, abruptly spiking fear into Dinky's heart, but before she could plead for the other mare to awaken, she spoke up again, mustering little more than a whisper this time, "I-I love you, Dinky, you, and all the others. You let them know that. W-We'll...we'll see each other someday...g-goodbye..."

Then Pinchy's grip loosened on her, falling limply beside the bed, hanging down as if she were reaching for something, about the same time, the heart monitor ended in a prolonged, high-pitched whine. But Dinky barely heard it.

She knew what the sound meant, but she didn't want to accept the truth that it meant the same for her friend. She levitated Pinchy's hoof back up to rest over her chest, before staring down at her silently. She opened her mouth to say something, anything, but a tight lump in her throat prevented her from doing so.

A few moments passed, before she finally decided to momentarily lose her brave, fearless image and began to sob openly at the bedside.

**Alright, no, I didn't keep Pinchy alive longer this time (she was never shown alive in my last version of this, only mentioned in a flashback, where she was already dead), I actually decided to begin this version of the fic earlier on. As in, Brevity Thrash/Fluttershy is still with them and very much alive, and so far, Ruby Pinch and Pina Colada are the only ones to die (so far).**

**That's in for this chapter, remembe to stay tuned for the next one! XD**


	3. AN

**Not an update, just an author's note to keep you guys a bit up-to-date on what I'm doing with this fic. **

**Alright, first of all, lemme say this: it will (probably) continue, but I don't know how long it's going to be until I do. In some ways, I'm trying to think of ideas for the new chapter, in other ways, I trying to think of ways to change it up a bit. One thing is, though, a friend of mine suggested a change up the synopsis a little more because the whole "evil Twilight Sparkle" thing is a severe cliche in the fandom. No, I don't hate her for it, because it's kinda (let's face it, not just kinda) true. If you look up "evil Twilight Sparkle" or something like that through DeviantART, you'll probably find quite a lot of pics based off of that theme, most depicting her as being corrupted by dark magic (like how King Sombra looked).**

**So, I think I might change the premise somewhat, or I might not (just try and make it seem less cliche). What do you guys think? Please tell me in the reviews. But for now, this fic is on hiatus for a while and I'm gonna start on rewriting "The Trotting Dead" (I uploaded that fic a few weeks ago, but only left it up for a few days before taking it down again to change the synopsis of it). Alright, I is done here (best grammar ever), see ya! XD**


	4. Chapter 2

_BANG!_

A gunshot echoed throughout the dusty air, startling away any nearby birds or small animals who weren't just mutilated corpses lying on the sides of the road.

The explosion's source was from a gun nearby, clutched in the hooves of an orange Pegasus mare as a bullet struck a white stallion across from her dead between the eyes, causing his dark gold gaze to abruptly go blank and his body to fall limply to the ground, a dark red substance pooling beneath his head.

She suppressed a smirk, but her victory was cut short as a bullet grazed her ear, startling her out of her trance. She turned towards another stallion, another Pegasus pony with a brilliant gold coat, glaring fiercely at her as he pointed his own shotgun at her. He went to make his shot, aiming straight for her head, causing Scootaloo to flinch, waiting for him to finish her off.

A gunshot rang out once again, and then and there, she thought she was dead. But blinking her lavender eyes open, she was shocked to realize the shot wasn't at herself, but from another mare, a pale greyish lavender unicorn with a once beautiful blonde mane. She levitated her own rifle, pointing it at the now dead stallion at her hooves.

With a barely audible sigh, she turned to face her companion, but as the orange Pegasus went to thank her, only a pained yell came forth as a bullet struck her right shoulder, nearly knocking her off her hooves.

"Scootaloo!"

But before Dinky could rush to her aid, the pony who shot her friend, a chocolate brown colt, smirked at her as he pointed a hoofgun towards her, speaking in a low, ominous tone, "You're not going anywhere!"

Dinky quickly took aim, going to pull the trigger, only to be cut off by yet another scream. This time, it came from a mint green unicorn, her twin sister, Tootsie Flute, nearby, being tackled by a dark grey unicorn mare, whose horn blazed a brilliant lime green.

Without thinking, her attention left the stallion as she charged towards them, but as she went to pull the trigger, only an audible _click _came forth, a sound they knew all too well. She looked at fearfully, shaking it and pulling the trigger multiple times, fearfully attempting to bring forth more bullets that weren't there.

After a few failed tries, she was snapped out of her panic as that same stallion shot at her again, narrowly missing her. "C'mon, filly," he called tauntingly at her. "giving up so easily?"

She shot a cold glare at him out of the corner of her light yellow eye, but to his surprise, she didn't attack him, nor did she even threaten him. Instead, she only scoffed to herself, before leaping forwards and tackling the grey mare off of Tootsie Flute, glancing towards her while she had the infuriated unicorn pinned, "Tootsie, run! Now!"

Wincing, she staggered to her hooves and galloped away without question, limping rather noticably, somewhat concerning the purple mare.

_I can deal with that later, _she thought. _but for now..._

She turned her attention to the older mare, who let out an audible snarl, like an infuriated wild animal, as she struggled to throw Dinky off. But before she could do anything, Dinky abruptly grabbed at her throat as powerfully as she could muster until the mare's dark face acquired a barely noticable bluish tint.

She fought furiously beneath Dinky's strong grip, surprising her despite the filly's small size compared to herself, but it didn't take long for her struggles to noticably weaken, only a few choked coughs and gurgles coming forth as she attempted to speak out.

"Dinky!"

The unicorn stopped in her tracks for a couple of seconds as Scootaloo called her name, a light yellow mare standing at her side, both of them shocked that their friend, one of the most innocent ponies they'd ever known, was about to mercilessly murder the mare.

"Dinky," the yellow Earth pony said, trying her best to stay calm. "let her go!"

She hesitated for a few moments, before finally releasing her grip on the mare's throat, her eyes already glassy and her body weakening, but a few struggled breaths came forth as her airway opened up once again. But before she released the mare, a gun was abruptly levitated and held against her forehead, acquiring a fearful look in her momentarily blank scarlet glare.

"Never...come...back!" Dinky snarled in a menacing tone, enough to spike fear into the other mare.

Without saying anything, she nodded hastily as Dinky reluctantly threw her empty gun off to the side and let the mare go, who wearily half-dragged herself away. After shooting a couple fierce glares towards the three mares, Dinky still levitating her gun in their direction, the two stallions grabbed onto the unicorn and soared off into the sky, Dinky staring fiercely after them until they were out of sight.

After a while, Dinky let her magical aura blink out with an exhausted sigh, her shotgun falling to the ground at her hooves. _I-I didn't think I was getting this weak already..._

"Wow," Scootaloo commented, somewhat shocked, as she approached the unicorn's side. "I can't believe you nearly..." Dinky cut her off with a scoff, replying, "Oh, get over it. She wasn't worth the strength anyway."

Scootaloo rolled her eyes as a response, before glancing towards the yellow Earth mare, who was helping the cowering Tootsie Flute to her hooves. "Noi, you can just escort her to the infirmary for now. Tell the others we'll be up in a sec." With a quick nod, Noi obeyed Scoots' command and helped the limping unicorn towards the dilapidated clubhouse.

The orange Pegasus stared after them for a few moments, only to abruptly notice that Dinky was starting away from her as well.

Casting her friend a concerned glance, she limped towards her, refusing to acknowledge the bullet lodged into her shoulder, blood pulsing forth and dripping onto the ground as she went.

As she approached Dinky, the unicorn abruptly shot a rather harsh glance at her, muttering mostly to herself, "Don't you have somewhere to be?" Scootaloo flinched for a couple of seconds, before starting towards her again.

"Look, Dinky, I know you're still a little broken because of Pinchy and all..."

"It has _nothing _to do with Ruby Pinch!" she abruptly snapped, before forcing herself to calm down again. "It-It has nothing to do with her, it's just...I dunno. I'm tired, I guess." She cast a brief glance at the still rising Sun, a look of sadness in her eyes.

"Well, you'd better not be, we're scheduled to patrol the area in a couple of hours. Remember?"

Dinky groaned as a response, "Ugh, again? Can't anypony else do it this time? There's plenty of other ponies that'd be all too happy to do it too, y'know!"

"No, because those "plenty of other ponies" are either injured or dead now, especially after that ambush from our little "friends" just the other week. Red June fighting on their side sure didn't help us either."

For a few moments, Dinky remained silent at the mention of the scarlet Earth pony, one of Applebloom's cousins who lived in Fillydelphia before all of this.

As Red had claimed, a couple of guards from the Republic tricked her into believing they had Liberty Belle, her sister and best friend who went missing many months back, and they'd return her to the Resistance if Red did everything they told her to do, as well as assist them in one of their most brutal fights against the Resistance.

Many ponies were left critically injured, dead, or succumbed to their injuries later on; it was the fight that caused Pinchy to lose her life. When the group of Killers, or Spark Republic ponies whose only use were to kill all of the ponies who opposed to the Queen's ways, fled without bringing Liberty Belle back, Red abruptly realized they'd tricked her and found herself excessively guilty.

By then, she'd lost the trust of everypony; the whole of the Resistance, and she knew the Spark Republic would doubtedly take her in.

When Dinky confronted her after everypony else had gone, she pleaded and begged openly for forgiveness, that she didn't know they'd tricked her. But, blinded by rage, Dinky mercilessly beat her into submission before putting a bullet in her head, believing she would only cause much more trouble to the Resistance.

"Yeah." Dinky said quietly in an almost trance-like tone.

"A lot of those ponies are still too weak to fight or patrol the nearby towns with us, so Brevity Thrash is counting on us and the few other ponies who're still mobile to keep this group going."

Dinky cast a brief glance at Scootaloo's bleeding shoulder, and the Pegasus seemed to follow her gaze. "It's fine, Dinky, I'm not gonna let one little bullet stop me from fighting until the end."

She knew that the orange mare wasn't lying too. Ever since the Spark Republic came to power and her sister figure and idol, Rainbow Dash, was taken away from her, Scootaloo became a lot more aggressive and reckless, even merciless at times, and rarely let her injuries faze her unless it was crippling or fatal. But she often knew when enough was enough and would rarely, if ever, kill another pony, even if they were from the Republic, if it wasn't neccessary.

For a few moments, they were both silent again, staring off distantly at the Sun as ti rose into the sky, tinted an unnatural scarlet as if the blood spilled in the once magical nation had stained it as well.

Dinky cast a brief glance towards Scootaloo, a hint of sadness in the mare's lavender eyes, as if she were remembering something, something from the past. She opened her mouth to speak up, but Scootaloo cut her off.

"I'm gonna go on inside now, we can't sit out here too long or somepony might see us. Come on in when you're ready, Dinky."

Without another word, the Pegasus started off, climbing the steps into the dilapidated clubhouse and soon disappearing into its shadows. She stared after her friend for what felt like hours, as if staring would make everything go back to normal somehow. That was all she ever truly wanted; to see Equestria go back to being the magical land it once was, full of color, happiness, friendship.

But now, hatred and fear lingered heavily in the air. Fillies and colts were grown now, but hardened and vicious shells of their former selves. The world she grew up in, she knew there was never anything to fear, and what there was the Princesses or the Elements of Harmony would take care of. She knew no other living pony with any hint of sanity left in their souls would even intentionally harm, much less, _kill _another.

But this, she knew all too well, was not that world.

***  
"Dinky! Dinky, c'mon, wake up!"

Her light gold eyes snapped open with a start, and she half expected to see her mother's derped face half staring down at her eagerly. But instead, she was met with a face of greyish white, her light pink and violet mane, once beautiful many years ago, half-covering her face.

"Are you crazy, Dinky? Why in Celestia's name would you take a nap out _here?"_

Dinky stared at her friend for a few moments, before turning away, letting out a barely audible sigh. _Can't you just leave me alone for once?_

"Look, Dinky, i know you're tired and all from that fight you woke up to earlier, but Fluttershy said she needed to see you, that it was urgent." This peaked Dinky's attention as she forced herself to sit up, half wondering whether it was just a trick to get her bright-eyed and bushy tailed for the day.

"What for?" she asked, a slight hint of skepticism lingering in her voice. Sweetie Belle only shook her head as a reply, "She didn't say. She went down to the river. Y'know, near her old cottage where usually instructs us to "dispose" of the bodies of our fallen allies?"

Dinky cut her off as she began to speak further, "I know where it is, just...go on back inside, Sweetie. It's not safe out here." Before the white unicorn got a chance to reply, she began trotting off in the direction of the devastated Ponyville.

Sweetie turned to face her momentarily, opening her mouth to speak, but upon noticing the mare was doubtedly listening, she only turned tail herself and headed back into the clubhouse.

It didn't take long for Dinky to reach the peak of the rather medium-sized hill that separated the outskirts of the town, where the schoolhouse and the CMCs old clubhouse were, and the town itself. From there, she could see all of what was left: a ghost town, a hollowed-out shell of its former self.

In the distance, she could barely make out Canterlot in the hazy air, surrounding by a weak looking magenta orb, a shield, that still remained long after the magical field's source was long gone.

_I won't try to understand why it hasn't collapsed, at least its keeping those-those _things _away from us...for now._

After staring off towards Canterlot for a few moments, she turned her attention to what was left of Ponyville. Nothing but old, long abandoned buildings that were once homes and bustling businesses for miles across, all now fallen in or gradually collapsing. Town Hall, a rather noticable building at the centre of town, still managed to stand, but its roof had long fallen in, rendering the old thing uninhabitable.

Dust and dirt hung heavily in the air, rendering the town rather hazy looking and almost unrecognizable, as if a bomb or two had been dropped on it or it'd been abandoned for far more than a mere decade.

She let out a sigh, taking her final breath of fresh air, before starting down the hill towards it, checking her hoofgun as she went. _Two left, _she thought. _let's hope that's enough to hold off Ponyville's "citizens' for today._

She approached it hesitantly, the dust in the air causing her to cough and retch noisily, most likely, loud enough to alert anything that was left there of her presence. She levitated her gun at the ready, just in case, until she managed to force herself to get use to the dusty air, knowing that'd she'd be beyond it soon enough, so she tried to quicken her pace a bit, but not enough to make too much noise.

It was deathly quiet, almost frightening to her as she'd grown up knowing she'd wake up to the town being full of color and life. She looked around, almost able to see herself again, either running through the streets excitedly alongside her friends or watching Derpy hold onto her firmly, but gingerly, as she carried the unicorn filly through the light blue skies.

The thoughts, the flashbacks, almost brought a smile to her face, but realizing the fact they were just memories nearly brought tears to her eyes, knowing that it'd never be the same, that she could never go back to that.

But as she went, a thought came to mind. Why not pay a little visit to those "memories" while she was passing through? To her surprise, the streets seemed strangely dead today. For a moment, she turned off of her original path and started deeper into the town, every now and again, noticing a mutilated corpse lying against one of the old walls, most rotting gradually and unrecognizable.

The sights disturbed her; she was forced to kill, or at least beat a pony with her own hooves almost every day that came but she'd never be able to truly to accept the sight of gore and death.

She also knew they were signs, signs that those ponies, ponies who had lost all sense of humanity, still lingered and were far from dead. But she knew where she was going and knew she could flee with ease if anything ambushed her while she was here.

It didn't take long for her to finally see it, her old home, looking almost as if it were untouched other than one window being boarded and the other being shattered, and a large crater replacing half of the door. As she approached it, she looked around briefly before crouching low and slipping through the hole in the front door. The jagged remnants scraped uncomfortably against her thin coat and she could just barely fit, believing the door was probably locked, but managed to slip out the other side unscathed.

Upon entering, she strained to light up a tiny orb at the tip of her horn, which was enough to give her plenty of light to see at least the room she was in.

It was the living room, but it looked as if it'd been ambushed and ransacked at some point in time after its abandonment, other than a few framed photos above an old fireplace on the far wall. The floor was blanketed in dust, leaving hoof-shaped prints in it as she walked, revealing the dry rotted wood floor below, a few stains of dry blood decorating the walls and the floor in some spots.

_Dear sweet Celestia..._

Aiming her light around a bit to ensure nopony was taking refuge within the place, she started forwards and propped up one of the photos. It was encased in an old, dry rotten wooden frame and shielded with badly cracked glass and a thick layer of dust With a brief blow of air, the dust instantly flew off, which instantly flew into her eyes and through her airways.

As a response, she instantly began hacking, coughing up transparent clouds of dust into the air, pawing irritably at her eyes to free them off the stinging substance.

Once she managed to clear her vision mostly, she slipped the photo from its frame, slightly tattered at its edges, but it was still very recognizable. It depicted herself in her early teen years, a couple years before the Republic came to power. To her left was her elder sister, Amethyst Sparkler Star, a mint green unicorn filly was perched on her back, grinning widely.

She recognized the other filly as Tootsie Flute, her twin sister who resided with her back at the Resistance's base and was often favoured by Amethyst.

To her right was a light brown stallion with a spiky chocolate brown mane, smiling slightly towards and enthusiastic looking bluish grey Pegasus pony. She recognized them as their adoptive father, Doctor Time Turner Whooves, and their mother, Ditzy Doo "Derpy" Hooves.

The picture was all too familiar from when the fillies were looking around the basement of the house and found an old camera down there. Noticing there were only pictures of the fillies or their parents and their friends alone, they decided to take a family photo with it. It was a little thing, but very memorable to her.

She smiled slightly, tears beginning to form in her gold eyes, but as she held it up to place it back in its frame, a loud _bang! _abruptly startled her out of her trance, shattering the silence into a million pieces.

As she finally snapped back into reality, she was horrified to notice a slightly steaming hole in the picture she was holding, lowering it to realize the hole went straight through the frame and into the wall behind it. Before she could investigate what had happened, a gun cocked audibly behind her, and she turned hesitantly to notice she was staring down the barrel of a gun, a sillouheted pony, presumably a mare due to her stature being similar to her own, clutching it tightly in her hooves, which Dinky noticed were trembling ever so slightly.

Dinky momentarily tried to think whether to grab her own gun, but soon chose against it, fearing holding her attacker at gunpoint would only coax her to shoot, and this time, her aim wasn't off.

She opened her mouth to speak, but only closed it again seconds later, as she couldn't find the words to say. Only questions swarmed around in her head: who was this pony and what did she want from her?

She chose to question her, or at least try to, but as she went to speak, a bright flash abruptly blinded her, accompanied by a deafening gunshot, and then, everything went quiet.

**Finally, an update! Alright, in case you don't already know this, this revision of the fic is mostly going by Dinky's prespective (it will go to other ponies' POVs for some sections or some chapters, but otherwise, it's in Dinky's POV for most of it) and it started out a couple months before the death of Brevity Thrash/Fluttershy, so, the actual concept of the story isn't changing (like I planned for a little while), but more things are happening, to coax the readers to, well, keep reading. XD**

**I'm planning on starting on chapter three sometime later, but for now, please enjoy and stay tuned for the next chapter! XD**

**Also, the ponies the group fought at the very beginning aren't anyponies in particular (other than the white stallion, who is suppose to be Milky Way, a pony from "Wonderbolts Academy", and the black unicorn mare that Dinky tried to kill, who is an ancient OC of mine). And Red June, the pony Dinky killed in the past due to the former's betrayal is a scarlet Earth filly (also as a unicorn due to an animation error) with a lime green mane and tail seen in "Apple Family Reunion" (and then never again). **

**I'm just trying to use lesser-known, mostly ignored or very minor BG ponies for random deaths that happened in the past or during fights. And a "hoofgun" is a handgun in the pony world, somehow modified to be used by the hooves of an Earth pony or Pegasus (don't ask how they're modified, I'm not going to go into too much detail on it). **


	5. Another AN DX

Okay, first of all, I apologize for making so many more ANs than actual updates on this fic, but again, I'm facing writers' block on this thing (tends to happen to me a lot with multichapter fics) and I'm planning on revising it. Again. Lemme explain why: First of all, I think I'm doing this whole writing process of it all wrong. I keep on writing the first few chapters then plan out the characters, setting, future storylines, and basically all the stuff you should've been planning beforehand. Another thing is that, while writing, I keep on falling into these long-term hiatuses and writers' blocks while it's online and I find myself writing hundreds of ANs to ensure that the fic isn't discontinued or anything (it may cause some confusion for some people, that's why). So, my new plan is to either write the entire fic offline and then update it by adding chapters day-by-day afterwards so I won't have to put up ANs anymore, just leave it up until I can replan out everything and then start off from where I'm at on it now, or just scrap the idea altogether (maybe let someone else use the idea for their own fic or something) and start on something else (seriously, the first time I revised this it had about six chapters already, and now I'm down to like, three, and I doesn't seem to be progressing much at all from there). Either way, what do you guys think would be the best thing to do it for it? Alright, I'm done here...again. Stay tuned! XD 


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